Comeback and redemption – AS.com

There are ghosts that haunt in football. That howl in your ear on nights like this. San Siro, the Atleti. Luis Suárez before the penalty spot, the goal of the nord curve, minute 97. He struck with the interior, through the center, like a direct arrow to the heart of the ghosts, of that goal in the north curve of San Siro, of a Milan that could not believe that he was going to lose that match. An hour and a half before, no one would have imagined this final.

Pioli's team had jumped in the midst of the deafening air, the Rossonian cry back seven years later, which was read in a tifo, AC Milan is back, which roared on the tips of Italian boots, very vertical. The game had just started and they were already striking fiercely on the grass. He bit into each ball as if those minutes were already a long 90 '. Atleti, injured before playing, tried to temper, lower his heart rate, but was unable. Nervous, erratic, without linking four passes in a row.

Milan has long aired their locker room and blew out the wrinkles: what has emerged are bullets. With two old acquaintances unraveling like a house of cards Cholo's initial plan, that 4-4-2: Brahim and Theo. One in command, irrepressible. The other, a knife that left only blood in its wake, defeated rojiblancos. But it is that they ran without energy, as if they had forgotten that it is that team where the heart goes ahead of the legs. Surpassed in each set, dispute, ball. Small before a Milan that opened its jaws in each play. Oblak escaped the first bite, a heads-up against Rebic that he smashed with his leg, but not the second, a minute later. Brahim, again Brahim, Brahim in everything, received the ball, stepped on it and looked for Leão, just. Incomprehensible, Koke ignored the brand. Incomprehensible, his companions, instead of closing, just watched. Leão took advantage of the red carpet to score at will.

He was able to change the game forever in the 28th minute, after Kessié, wearing yellow, was late for a ball and stepped on Llorente. Red He could but no. He rebuilt Pioli immediately. Outside Rebic, also admonished, inside Tonali, Brahim on one side and Leão on the front. The game continued as before. As if the team with one more man was Milan. Atleti continued without speed, without danger, without being Atleti. Only Llorente seemed to know where he was. San Siro, the Champions. But no one accompanied his ambition. Horrible Carrasco, Felipe the same, I take Trippier. Simeone changed him for João Félix just after Leão controlled a 60-meter ball and stamped it on the wood on Oblak with a Chilean. The play was not worth, offside, but it was the photo of the first part. Milan like The colossus by Goya.

And then Griezmann

The second part started as the first part ended. With Suárez looking for the tie. Before rest, volley. Later, upside down, when the game had really changed. But it is that the Atleti drawn 4-3-3 had jumped and, as so many times already this season, two men in the band ready to enter: Lodi and De Paul, who joined a João Félix signed to shine in games like this , of which the chosen footballers change. Footballers like Griezmann. That it may be wrong, that it may not fit in yet, but it's Griezmann, and jumped in San Siro filtering a ball into the area until then not seen. It was many nights with the crunch of the San Siro crossbar in my head. That penalty, that final, the need for redemption. He left, yes, but he has returned. And he is a boy who represents Atleti, one of those who play football as their heart dictates.

Milan resisted, corroded by lactic acid but tactically and compact. Atleti was unable to enter the Maignan area. Simeone looked for the last key in his closet: Lemar, back after injury at 64 '. His boot was the one that lit up to get Griezmann out of the labyrinth. He headed a ball into the area so that Grizi impaled him with a volley and deposited the ball into the net, ripping the sheet off the ghosts. To those of San Siro and their own.

The final minutes were filled with pecks. Almost from Correa, almost from Lemar, almost from João. Then, three minutes after the referee raised the sign with the 6 ', Kalulu raised his arm before a ball from Lemar. Penalty. Suárez scoring 1-2 in that damn goal, Juanfran's. From eleven meters